1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to labels and more particularly to a rotatable label for pharmaceutical containers.
2. Description of the Background Art
Many pill-formed products, such as vitamins and medications, are packaged in pharmaceutical containers. It is usually desirable to display information in the form of written indicia arranged on the exterior surface of such containers to inform consumers as to the nature and use of the associated products. This information may include directions for use, warnings, dosage amounts, and ingredients. Such information is typically printed on a label affixed to the pharmaceutical container.
A problem associated with conventional pharmaceutical labels is that typically insufficient area is available to accommodate all of the information which a pharmacist and drug manufacturer desires to provide to the consumer. In order to accommodate all of the desired information, the pharmacist or drug manufacturer may reduce font size of the indicia or space the indicia closer together. However, the reduction of text size may render some or all of the information illegible to the consumer, especially elderly consumers. Furthermore, consumers may tend to ignore information presented in xe2x80x9cfine print.xe2x80x9d
To provide additional space for the presentation of information, it has been proposed that a rotatable outer label be positioned about a pharmaceutical container having an inner label with indicia imprinted thereon. The outer label typically has a transparent section or window, which when rotated relative to the container, allows for viewing of indicia on the inner label through the transparent section or window. This construction permits information display on both the inner and outer labels, thus increasing the display area.
Despite the advantage of having a rotatable outer label on a pharmaceutical container, it has been impractical to employ rotatable outer labels due to the complexity of printing and applying a custom imprinted rotatable label to a pharmaceutical container. Conventionally, a label is attached to a container with an adhesive applied to the back of the label. However, this manner of application yields a label that is fixed and not rotatable relative to the container. Consequently, there is a need for a system and method by which a rotatable label may be disposed about a pharmaceutical container.
The present invention overcomes or substantially alleviates problems associated with custom information display on a conventional pharmaceutical container. In general, the present invention provides a pharmaceutical container having an inner label portion with written indicia disposed thereon and a rotatable outer label portion disposed about the inner label portion. The outer label portion also has written indicia imprinted thereon. Much of this written indicia is custom imprinted by the pharmacist at the time of pharmaceutical purchase.
The rotatable outer label portion may include at least one transparent section or window which, when rotated relative to the pharmaceutical container about a central vertical axis thereof, allows selective viewing of indicia imprinted on the inner label portion affixed to the container. Because indicia may be disposed both on the inner and rotatable outer label portions, the drug manufacturer or pharmacist may advantageously provide a substantially increased amount of information to the consumer.
The present invention also discloses various methods of constructing a rotatable label system on a pharmaceutical container. According to one embodiment, the label consists of a separate inner label portion and outer label portion. After custom patient information is imprinted on the two separate label portions, the inner label portion is affixed to the container. Then, the outer label portion is independently placed over the inner label portion.
An alternative method of constructing a rotatable label system on a pharmaceutical container utilizes one label with an inner label portion and an outer label portion connected along a perforation line. After the inner label portion is affixed to the container, the connected outer label portion continuously wraps around the inner label portion and adheres to a leading edge of the outer label portion. After the outer label portion is detached from the inner label portion along the perforation line, the outer label portion is rotatable about the container.